Star Wars: What Was Missing

Since I blanked out a little bit on what I should write today (and midnight is rapidly approaching) I took a bit of a survey from twitter and facebook. What should I write about. Between all the info I got, I had 1 vote for “some other form of media” and a monstrous 4 votes for something about Star Wars.

Somehow, I feel like this is roughly representative of the people who should be reading this blog.

I digress. Star Wars it is.

Specifically, the main request came from @ejharris3 on twitter. A friend of mine from college who wants me to tell him something that he doesn't know about the Star wars Expanded Universe. Upon chatting with him a little bit more on AIM, I found a topic.

“Do the actual movie tie-ins expand the movies? Is there something in the canon about the period from the raid on Leia's ship to the great teddy bear victory that I would find cool but wasn't told in the films.”

Well, not to answer that question exactly, but that's definitely the guide for this blog post. I'm actually going to focus more on the prequels, which in my opinion are one of the biggest examples of failed potential that the Star Wars Universe has experienced so far. Now, I know that mocking those movies is a little bit on easy end of popular opinion, but I'm actually going to explain why I feel that way, and what I think could have been done better.

Alright, first off, lets look at the whole point of these movies. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff in these movies that isn't going to directly focus on that, but ultimately, I think that having a central focus like that will really shore up the plot structure of the movies. If I was to write these movies, they would be about Anakin – and his fall to the Dark Side. Sure, there's plenty else to tell, and all of that will happen as well. We need the story of the Republic's fall, and the destruction of the Jedi Order, and the Clone Wars, and all the rest. A lot of that is important, and we'll make sure we get there, but that's not what the story is about.

Good. So, Anakin's fall to the Dark Side. Let's establish what we know in the current version.

Step 1: Traumatic Childhood

Step 2: Normal Jedi Adolescence

Step 3: Chatted with Sentor PalpablyEvil

Step 3: Killed Some Sand People to Avenge His Mother

Step 4: More Chats With Palpy

Step 5: Baby Killing Monstrosity

Now, I'd like to expand a few of those points. Traumatic childhood is a decent one. He grew up as a slave, had to leave his mother at a young age, and...

Yea. Nothing else of consequence to Anakin happened in movie 1, did it? I mean, he flew a star fighter around and deus-ex-machina'd the droid army. Whatever. Stupid Tatooine hotshots and all that. We're moving on.

Normal Jedi Adolescence. Yep. Nothing at all of consequence here. We pretty much fast-forward through all of that. It's between episode 1 and 2, and to my knowledge, there's barely anything anywhere that explores this period of his life. That's a good thing, because nothing important happens at all.

From what we can gather from the movies (something that was woefully underdeveloped, in my opinion), Anakin and Palpatine became good friends. They talked often, and Anakin saw Palpatine as a kind of father figure and moral guide.

The first hints we get of Anakin being evil come when he avenges his mother's death by killing a bunch of Sand People. Is this evil? Probably. I mean, murder ranks pretty high on that scale, but we can at least chalk it up partially to ridiculously potent grief. I mean, things like that happen in real life, and it's often a first step on a slippery slope. We could buy that...now we need to see Anakin start slipping.

More conversations, just like the first time. The guy's probably evil, but he's really not saying anything outright bad, except maybe slandering the Jedicial Branch of the Not-Government a little bit. Hey, they do kind of operate outside the normal bounds of authority, and there aren't exactly too many checks on their power...

I AM ANAKIN AND I KILL YOUNGLINGS.

…

Did you see an abrupt jump there? Because the characters in the movie didn't. Mace Windu always had his eye out for Anakin to turn evil. Hell, it seems like everyone was watching for it except for Obi-Wan. Anyone ever wonder why? That's because those characters had a whole mess of additional information that we never got.

It was called the Clone Wars.

Seriously, there's like...something like 15 or 20 books in the middle there, plus two seasons of cartoons (more now, if you count the newer Clone Wars series, but that's a canon argument for another day entirely). I'm almost positive that there's graphic novels as well, but I'm not absolutely certain. (Google seems to think there are a few, now that I do a preliminary search).

What happened during those stories? Mostly, Anakin became more and more reckless, winning battle after battle in the war and gaining great acclaim across the galaxy. He and Obi-Wan became major celebrity figures in the galaxy as more than just great warriors. They were more than just peacekeepers – they were heroes. Saviors.

Matthew Stover explores this a lot in his novelization of Episode 3, but really, it's an underlying theme in all of the novels of the Clone Wars. Anakin isn't really a by-the-book kind of fellow. He's a rogue, and sadly, good enough to get away with it. It's something we don't really get to see all that much in the movies. We see Anakin being the subject of a lot of distrust, but not really the source of the distrust (except perhaps, some vague prophecy that's only half believed.)

So, what should we have done to make this movie series a lot better? Cut episode one. Take the information about Anakin's childhood there and insert it as either flashbacks, or scrollby text at the start, or something else. Then, between the old episodes 2 and 3? Insert another movie called “The Clone Wars.” In it, we experience Anakin's gradual descent to evil, or at least, get him to a point where that last jump is a believable one. We actually develop villains like Dooku and Grevious, instead of having them just be stand-ins with lightsabers to fight against.

And in the end, Episode 3 remains fundamentally the same, because it was actually a pretty solid movie if you watch the extended edition that heavily implies Anakin's suspicions that Padme and Obi-Wan are sleeping together.

Missed that too? Must've been one of those things they cut from the theatrical version. It's in the books, and the deleted scenes. It makes Anakin seem a lot less crazy too. Obi-Wan spends late nights over at Padme's place. They're actually setting up a rebellion against Palpatine. They don't want to let Anakin know because he's all buddy-buddy with the Supreme Overlord Chancellor Palpatine. From Anakin's point of view (especially with him knowing that Padme's lying about it) seems a lot more reasonable now.

So, this whole rant was a slightly roundabout way of answering the question. But ultimately, yes. The EU does add a lot to the Star Wars universe. Some of it is terrible (Do NOT read Children of the Jedi, or Darksaber. Avoid at all costs. Seriously.) Some of it is pretty decent. (I'm looking at you, Republic Commando). Some of it is GREAT. (Thanks Aaron Allston and Matthew Stover.)

Read the right parts, and you'll love the movies, and the universe all the more. Read the wrong bits...and you'll realize why so many people have disdain for it. Want a comprehensive list of what I think you should read? Drop a comment.

What did you guys think of this one? It's a little bit ranty, and it probably could've been structured a little better. Nevertheless, what do you guys think? Favorite part of Star Wars? Something you hated? Think my versions work better? How would you change yours? I'm actually anxious, because I know there's all manner of Star Wars fans in the viewership this time.

Let me know. Comment box down there ---vvv